If my life were a soap opera, this would be cliff hanger week. Things were just going along in the normal craziness, when the phone rang. My sister, with bad news. My oldest sister – usually referred to as the oldest Evil – passed away 7 years ago. Holy cow, yeah, it really was that long. So the next sister, who has rarely been evil, was calling to tell me that the oldest one’s husband had died.

A week earlier.

No one was notified. Not his oldest daughter. Not the granddaughter he raised. Only a select few were told. Another niece saw it in the newspaper, called her mom, and his oldest daughter. I called my great-niece, and had to deliver the news that the man who raised her had passed away a week earlier, and that no one had bothered to let her know.

Oh, they have a lot of excuses. They didn’t know how to get ahold of her is the best one. Odd, that. Several people know that she and I are close, and several people know how to find ME. But no one thought to call me, either.

No, this was planned. This was done to make sure she wasn’t there. Her mother was also excluded, but like J, she showed up anyway. They wouldn’t let her near the coffin. They denied her – or tried to – a last goodbye to her father. Stupidity and petty jealousy and pure greed is all that is.

But J made it to the funeral, and will soon be on her way home, to deal with her grief. Thank goodness she has good friends, who went with her to the funeral, and the viewing, and gave her a place to stay. Thank goodness for my friends, who worked overtime to keep her safe.

It’s been difficult. Someone I’ve known for nearly all of my life has passed away. I wasn’t close to him for a very long time, and he was not always a very nice person. But he was always good to me. I really didn’t much like him in later years, and I really need to work on forgiving him for allowing the Oldest Evil to do the things she did to J. So I’m grieving, too.

Added to all this is the normal Christmas stress. Yeah, it’s been a very stressful week.